Justice System Reform

Impact Litigation

Our team represents individuals and community-based organizations throughout the South, in cases that raise important criminal justice issues. These cases also create the potential for structural change that  have positive implications for racial justice, particularly if there is community-wide organizing support.

Policy Advocacy

Our policy advocacy engages a number of different issues, including but not limited to: police accountability, mass incarceration, and helping people with criminal records reintegrate into their communities.

We believe individuals are not the sum of their worst mistakes.

Current Partners

North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty — The Southern Coalition for Social Justice is a proud member of the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NCCADP). Members of the SCSJ Justice System Reform team meet regularly with NCCADP partners to brainstorm strategies for not only raising awareness and educating the public about the injustice of the death penalty, but also for ending the death penalty in North Carolina altogether.

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health — The Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) is partnering with a UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health graduate student team to discuss and analyze the “justice” system in North Carolina, as well as community-led preventative programs and alternatives to criminalization that impact youth and their community. This group will partner with community members previously or currently impacted by the juvenile justice system and/or the school-to-prison pipeline, who will act as either co-researchers or research participants. The goal of this project is to amplify the voices of impacted community members to guide future discussions regarding ending youth criminalization in North Carolina.